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Downing Street has rebuffed Ken Clarke after the Cabinet minister described
David Cameron’s immigration claims as “typical right-wing, nationalist
escapism”.

Mr Clarke said in an interview with the Financial Times that EU
migrants had made a positive contribution to British society, and that
closing the door to immigration was a fantasy that was not consistent with a
thriving market economy.

The remarks set him on a collision course with the Prime Minister, who warned
last month that there must be no repeat of the “vast migrations” that
followed the accession of eight mainly Eastern European countries to the EU
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